robert macey, department of tpli: public transport, health and well-being
DESCRIPTION
Robert Macey, Director, Department of Transport, Planning and Local Infrastructure delivered this presentation at the 2013 Social Determinants of Health conference. The conference brought together health, social services and public policy organisations to discuss how social determinants affect the health of the nation and to consider how policy decisions can be targeted to reduce health inequities. The agenda facilitated much needed discussion on new approaches to manage social determinants of health and bridge the gap in health between the socially disadvantaged and the broader Australian population. For more information about the event, please visit the conference website: http://www.informa.com.au/social-determinants.TRANSCRIPT
Public Transport, Health and Well-Being
Social Determinants of Health Conference, Sydney, December 2013
Robert Macey, Department of Transport, Planning and Local Infrastructure
World Health Organisation
“Cycling, walking and the use of public transport promote health in four ways. They provide exercise, reduce fatal accidents, increase social contact and reduce air pollution.”
Social Determinants of Health: the Solid Facts - 2nd edition - World Health Organization 2003
Active transport health benefits (WHO)
Physical activity
• Less coronary heart disease
• Less high blood pressure
• Less type 2 diabetes
More use of public transport
• More walking, cycling or active transport
• Lower BMI/less obesity
More infrastructure facilitating public
transport use
• More walking, cycling or active transport
• Lower BMI/less obesity
• Lower air pollution exposure/effects
Public transport users get daily dose of exercise (Victoria)
Victorian Integrated Survey of Travel and Activity (VISTA)
Obesity and active transport (Litman)
The cost of inactivity
• $1.5bn a year and the economy $13bn a year (Medicare)
• Anxiety and depression
Public transport and well-being
Social Exclusion Unit UK
• Problems with transport provision can reinforce social exclusion
Institute of Transport Studies (Monash University)
• Integrated planning as much a component of disadvantage
World Health Organisation
• Promotes access to employment and services
Liveability Options in Outer Suburban Melbourne
• Growth areas a key concern
Liveability informing well-being • Public transport is a key indicator for liveability
Place, Health and Liveability Research Program Research Paper 1 June 2013
• “… the quality of green space, shop locations and designs, bike and footpath locations, access to public transport, all make a big difference to health, both mental and physical.”
Professor Giles-Corti, National Centre for Excellence in Healthy, Equitable and Liveable Communities
Changing minds, changing modes
• Creating healthier “micro-environments” in transport
• A city of “20 minute neighbourhoods”
Health in infrastructure cost benefit
analysis • Traditional CBA doesn’t quantify the range of health benefits/impacts of projects
• Does the challenge of quantifying health impacts represent a gap in policy assessment?
• World Bank guidance – Multi-criteria analysis (socioeconomic factors weighed)
– Cost Effectiveness Analysis (cost of intervention with predicted impact)
“Healthy public policy” and
challenges
Well-being in government decision
making?
A wider transport agenda?
Cross departmental
policy making?
